Saturday, January 3, 2015

And Caesar Slept

January 4, 2015

Dear Friends,

There were fireworks in my neighborhood accompanied by
impressive displays of colored lights. There was a significant amount of noise;
some partying people welcomed in the New Year with a great deal of energy.

Events
were likely much the same in your neighborhood.

In most places, the holiday season is considered officially
over. However, my study is an exception.

I continue to work on correcting my childhood version of
the Christmas story. I am attempting (so far as I am able) to recover history
as history, and yet retain mystery
and miracle without apology or fantasy.

So—back to work.

Caesar had commanded a census in which those Jewish
subjects who were descendants of David were directed to register in Bethlehem. One
important clue that helps us understand Epiphany and the Flight to Egypt lies in
this fact although the commercialized version of Luke’s story is no help in grasping
that point at first read.

We Christians miss (or distort) the historical context of
the nativity largely because of religious bad habit, ignorance, and
inattention. The birth of the Christ Child was a Jewish event (no—no
Christians on the scene as yet. Luke [Acts 11:26] noted that followers of
Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch years later).

Actually, the conception and birth of the Christ Child was
God’s decisive fulfillment of His ancient covenant with His chosen people,
Israel. This covenant (leading back to Abraham) was one of both privilege and
responsibility.

To His people Israel God had promised a Messiah who would
restore the throne of David and the glory of His people and God's relationship
with them. However, this promise carried what we might now term “missional”
responsibility. Through this Messiah God had decreed that the Gentiles as well would
be blessed, and their inclusion in the humanity-wide family of God insured.

In the divine
economy of events, when it was time for the Messiah to enter the human-race,
God had a plan in place.

Bethlehem will be Messiah’s birthplace, God had recorded earlier
through the prophet Micah. This fact was not kept secret. When after the birth
of Jesus those men who came from “the east” inquired at Herod’s court about the
location of the new King’s birthplace, the scribes and chief priests answered
promptly without hesitation: “Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what the prophet
wrote.” [Matt. 2:4-6]

But more about those “eastern” folk
next week. For today, a profoundly important event that is commonly overlooked.

Think factually: At the time of Jesus's birth Israel was a conquered people, subjects
of Rome, the original tribes scattered, and some of the northern tribes considered
“lost.” Only the religious Temple structure remained of what had once been a
civil/religious kingdom that was one of the wonders of the ancient world.

On the surface, the geographical challenge posed by Rome
was no small thing. How was God going to deliver this promised baby into the chaos, disorientation
and displacement that formed the “real life” of God’s people at that time? And
how would they know that He had come?

God is mysterious, but He is also blessedly sensible.

God took advantage of Caesar’s political plans to further
His own goal.

Everybody—well, almost everybody from the Tribe of Judah at least—would
be in Bethlehem, thanks to Caesar. How convenient.

Years of associating the nativity scene with church
settings requires this idea to take a bit of getting used to, but it is unquestionably
true—Thenativity occurred in the context of a political assembly!!

We are closer to the mark historically if we think of the
national convention of Democrats or Republicans. The political reality of the
times makes the later visit of those eastern folks an example of politics-as-usual,
the flight into Egypt reasonable, and the slaughter of the innocents typical of
Herod’s brutal self-serving insanity in the political realities of his day.

The descendants of David had congregated in Bethlehem in
obedience to a pagan emperor who—unknowing—acted in the sovereign service of Israel’s
God.

Watch God work.Come worship.

See the prophetic faithfulness of God, His unwavering
commitment to His covenant, the empty silent waiting years for captive Israel—then, O,
then—

Then—

- the baby safely delivered. I wish I knew the names of
the women who helped.

-Mary’s tired face, filled with joy as she first held Him,

- the small swaddled earthling asleep in the feeding trough. I think it likely that there were animals there, warm and sleepy and mildly curious about the strange events. I wish I could have seen the candle light in which that baby first
opened His eyes.

-the angels, the music, the spectacular light out there in
the dark, the shepherds in the fields with sheep that smelled (they always do).

-And, O I wish that I could have been there in that small sheltered space in which God Himself chose to arrive.

-God with us, in us, God at
peace with us.

What do you suppose Caesar was doing all that time while God was arriving to be with us, and the angels were singing, and the great promise to Israel was being kept?

I think Caesar was in the palace utterly unaware that, while he was having dinner, time had been eternally broken in two. That night I think Caesar went to sleep believing that his census was the significant news of the day.